Any world in which "Marvel's The Avengers" is the third highest-grossing film of all time is a world I want to live in — it just might not be a world that diehard "Battleship" fans want to live in.

Although the Universal action flick hit theaters overseas with weeks to go before the arrival of "Avengers," the Marvel film opened ahead of "Battleship" here in the States, and the results speak for themselves: a domestic gross of $598 million and counting for Earth's mightiest heroes, while the sailors of "Battleship" settled for a mere $63 mil.

It's not a result that's lost on director Peter Berg, who recently told MTV News: "We kind of ran into a wall when 'Avengers' refused to go away ... 'The Avengers' outperformed everything. It was impossible for 'Battleship' to get any oxygen."

"I would have loved to have come out three weeks before 'The Avengers' domestically, like we did internationally," he added about how he'd handle the "Battleship" release differently knowing what he knows now. "We did OK, but in hindsight — which my grandmother used to say is worth about a bucket of spit — we would have [released the movie] ahead of 'The Avengers,' not realizing it would have become, I think, the second biggest film in history behind 'Avatar.'"

Berg's a little bit off — but only a little bit. "Avengers" is number three behind only "Avatar" and "Titanic" and just ahead of the final "Harry Potter" movie. Any film going up against such a juggernaut was going to have its work cut out for it, as seen by box office tallies for nearly every other big summer movie released since "Avengers."

It's hard to complain if you're a True Believer — but for anyone who doesn't worship the House of Ideas, or if you're responsible for a different blockbuster like Berg, perhaps the success of "The Avengers" isn't the blessing that it is to comics fans.

Is Berg right? Did "Avengers" sink "Battleship," and was there anything that could have been done differently? Tell us in the comments section below or hit us up on Twitter!